Use of Risk Management in Civil Engineering

The person who applies science, mathematics, economics, social and practical knowledge to, design, manufacture and maintain buildings, materials, machines, chemicals, electronic devices, software and etc can be called as Engineers. Engineering which is a branch of science; always cares about the applications. So hazards are very common in this engineering field. Each engineering fields has different types of hazards. Many engineering fields only consists small amount of risks whereas some engineering fields consists large amount of risks. Civil engineering, Mechanical engineering, Chemical engineering and Electrical engineering are some of the engineering fields consists lots of hazards. Not only lab works but also site works are in these fields. We are going to explore the risk management process of civil engineering in this essay.

First we can discuss about the real definitions of words such as risk, hazard, and accident. Risk is defined as chance of getting loss or failure. If any property or the environment has chances to harm the human, this will be called as Hazard. Accident is an incident that happen unfortunately and unexpectedly resulting injuries and damages. Unsafe working conditions and unsafe activities lead to the accident. So safety in construction projects is essential. Reducing the hazards by developing and improving safety procedures is defined as safety engineering.

It is necessary to create policies to reduce the hazards. Policies should be updated with the time. Inspecting the construction site should be done frequently. If any hazards are identified, then proper procedures should be done to decrease the risk. If any unusable or broken equipment are found, they should be replaced immediately. They have to check whether construction workers don’t take safety equipments while working. After an accident, the proper reason should be revealed after the full investigation. If lack of safety is the reason for the accident, then essential safety should be provided. All the employees should be trained based on their works. They should be taught how to act in critical situations. They should be taught about the safety. Frequent meetings should be made with the workers. The records such as number of deaths and number of injuries must be maintained. These are the some of the basic functions of safety engineering.

This step is the most essential step in risk management because avoiding risks without identifying is impossible. In this step construction site will be fully analyzed. Possible problems or risks will be identified. However identifying risk is not an easy work. It will take lot of time. Generally identifying process includes lots of tests and analyses. Construction site will be evaluated in following chapters.

· Necessary tests will be done to check the land quality. Other kind of necessary tests also will be made. Proper permits will be gotten from government and respective organizations. Quality of the materials also tested. In this principle, quality of the future building will be analyzed. If we don’t consider these evolutions, building has higher chance of getting failure.

· In this process management will analyze whether the construction workers have proper knowledge on safety and have proper skills to do the work. And management will also analyze whether is there any conflict or problems between construction employees.

· To prevent from the financial loss, the full expense of construction project is calculated. Change in plan may cost a lot. Customer may have not the ability to settle the full amount. In critical situations money should be spent. Thus all details and plans is analyzed lot.

· Delays may lead to financial loss. Wage for the extra day and other costs will lead to financial loss. So analyzing the possible delays is also an important task. It will be harder to fulfill the project before the customer’s deadline.

These risks are identifiable in planning before the construction work. But some risks can’t be identified in the planning process. Some risks want to be identified during the construction process. When we look around the construction site, if we find something gets wrong, we have to research on it.

Now all the details about risks are analyzed. Management will analyze how do the risk affects the construction, Risks should be categorized into legal, physical, financial, or ethical risks. In this process, management calculates the possibility of the risks. Then in each categorize risks are analyzed lot.

Management determines how danger each risk is. Here possible risks are ranked based on their probability for danger and the impact can be caused because of the danger. They will consider money and time factors. Risk will be categorized as high level risks and low level risks.

In the previous steps, risks will be analyzed. Now management takes actions to prevent from the risks. Some risks can’t be preventable. So for those risks, the ways to reduce the risks is found. Different procedures will be done to reduce different risks. Here management calculates the cost needed for process of reducing risks process.

You have to make sure whether all of your suggestion takes place correctly.

These are two examples that show how to manage the hazards using the safety engineering principles. Management must take care of risk management by doing these five steps properly. In construction sites risk management is so important.

According to human rights all persons have equal rights to live safely. Everyone in the world deserves to do their work or business safely. We all know that civil engineering projects always consists large amount of risks. Employees spend lot of time of their lifetime in construction fields. So they have high chances to get affected due to injuries or fatalities. So it is necessary to implement the risk management process in construction projects. Construction Company and employees are two main human parts which relates with the construction projects. So I think that it is better to analyze this problem from views of both employee and the Construction Company.

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Let's focus on this problem from the Construction Company's point of view. They have to take full responsibility on accidents that happens on construction fields. They should be able to explain the accident technically to responsible officers, government and Medias. They have to face law problems. When responsible officers inspect the construction site, Construction companies may have to pay fine to the government for not having safety features. After an accident, construction equipments such as buildings, machineries and heavy vehicles may damage. So Construction Company needs to repair or replace those equipments. So lots of money should be spent. So works will be postponed. So time needed to full fill the construction project will increase. Construction Companies need to take the full responsibility of employee who gets injury during the construction work if safety procedures are not made. Construction Company needs to provide cash for the employee’s hospital fees and other compensations. So to reduce this amount of expenses, companies should provide good safety. And companies loses great experienced worker. Employees do great service to do the big projects for the Construction Companies. So Construction Companies have responsibility to provide good safety for the employees. So when we analyze from the construction company’s view, we can clearly say that lack of risk management produces lots of unwanted expenses and legal problems.

Now let’s focus this problem from employee’s view. Life of employees always depends on monthly salary or daily wage. Generally employee’s family only depends on that employee. Let’s imagine that that employee faced an accident. He/she injured or died. So that employee can’t contribute to that family. His/her family will be in critical situations. We all know that human is the most valuable thing in the world. So lose of human hurts the community surrounded him/her. So we should reduce these accidents. Harmful chemicals, noises, dusts and toxic materials are common in construction sites. These harmful materials may lead to bad effects in our body. So employee’s health will not be in good condition. Lung Cancer, Silicosis and Asthma are few of the important diseases affect the construction workers. Bad environment of the construction leads to these diseases.

We have seen the importance of the risk management. To stop these issues, we need to have risk management process. Correct risk management process will reduce the hazards nearly to zero.

We will see about the most common construction site hazards and ways to reduce those. Every worker who enters into construction site should know these procedures. Management must make sure that.

Workers may use equipments in high speed. Sometimes workers leave from construction field when machines are in running stage. This may produce dangerous conditions. So workers should be very careful when dealing with machines. We all know construction field has many volatile organic chemicals and easily flammable substances. Smoking in the construction field is so dangerous. So smoking in the construction field should be prohibited and strictly implemented. Working after taking alcohol or other drugs, is so dangerous. So drug usage should be prohibited. Workers may use the machines without having full knowledge regarding machines. This may lead to accidents. So employees need to be trained before letting them to use the equipments. All equipments are designed for doing a specific task. Using different equipment for different work may bring accidents. So management should stop this. Workers may not use the safety equipments provided. They may disconnect the safety guards. This should be strictly monitored by the management.

We all know that construction site is heavily polluted area. Atmosphere surrounding will contain lots of toxic gases, solid particles like dusts, bad chemicals and organic vapors. Breathing this polluted air may lead to various types of diseases like asthma and lung cancer. Employees should use masks or other safety equipment when they are in heavily polluted area. Construction sites contain dusts, solid materials and bad chemicals. Human eye affects because of these particles. So it is necessary to wear safety goggles to protect our eyes. Noise is common problem in construction sites. Using noise free equipments and using proper earmuffs will reduce this problem.

Asbestos is common name for six natural minerals. It is a toxic nonconductor to electricity. It has high animosity to heat to heat and chemicals. Asbestos is used for various purposes in the construction field such as roofing. It causes cancer in the employee’s body. It also affects the lungs effectively. Breathing these particles may lead to bad effects. Workers dealing with asbestos should attend medical checkup frequently. Workers should wear protective wears that are offered by the employers.

Workers should be very careful while working below or near to the electric wires. Only qualified electricians must be allowed to do the electrical works. Suitable wire should be chosen. If any possibilities for electrical shock are noted it should be corrected immediately. Ground line should be grounded well. Workers should avoid using electricity near to wet places.

If an employee feels that building is collapsing, then he needs to escape from the buildings using the emergency exit way. If employee can’t leave the construction field, he should find a shelter under a table or other stable surface. Face should be covered fully using any wears because of heavy dusts. After the collapse, if employee can’t move, he should signal others to help him.

According to stats, working at height produces lots of accidents each year. The numbers are higher than other hazards. But civil engineering projects needs the work at heights mostly. Before going to work at the heights, working should be planned properly. Workers who only have well enough health should be allowed to work at heights. Works like assembling should be done in ground if possible. Roof works are dangerous. Employees should be very careful when they work under fragile surface. Scaffolding collapse causes many deaths each year. Free falling objects are dangerous when they collide with the human. Safety equipments like full-body harnesses, hard hats, and safety boots, fall arrest systems and work positioning systems needed to be worn while working in heights. Ladders are one of the big reasons for many injuries in construction. Employer’s three parts of body should have contact with the ladder. Appropriate ladder should be chosen for the work. Loading weights more than limit in ladders must be prohibited. Ladders should be placed on stable surfaces. Employees should avoid working in the heights where fall protection systems are not found.

Workers should be very careful when they are working near to moving objects such as automated vehicles, heavy vehicles and other machineries. Lifted objects may produce hazard. In low lights vehicles may collide with human. High visibility clothes might be used to identify human in low lights.

This is also one of the leading hazards in the construction. Proper firefighting equipments must e placed in every parts of construction field. There should be some fire emergency exit ways in the construction area. Fire alarm should be maintained well. Smoking near to combustible materials should be prohibited. Containers which are highly pressurized should be maintained well.

Slips & trips are some of the leading causes for the employees. Employees should be aware of wet floors. Workers should be careful of with obstacles in the ways. This might lead to various injuries. Working environment must be maintained clean. Areas which can make employees to slip must be identified and caution tapes should be covered. In low lights it is harder to find these kinds of hazards. So when working in nights, enough light should be provided to all of the parts of construction area. Safety boots and slip resistance foot ware should be worn when walking in hazardous areas. Proper walking ways must be provided to the workers. Moving or lifting heavy weights in these places should be avoided. It is better to use machines to this purpose. Generally smooth floors only give some grip. So slipping chance is higher in these kinds of floors. So using skid-resistant materials will increase the friction and reduces the chance of slipping.

The protective clothes and equipments are called as personal protective equipments. These will decrease the impact of the accident. Respiratory protectors, Eye protectors like goggles, Hearing protectors like earmuffs, Hand protectors like gloves, Foot protectors like boots, Head protectors like hard hats, Skin protectors are the classes of PPE. Management should provide these equipments. Employees should wear these equipments suitable for their works. A supervisor should make sure this. All quality of the PPE should be inspected and they should obey to latest safety ratings.

We have knew the concept of safety engineering, the way to identifying and find the solutions using the principles of safety engineering, the importance of risk management, common hazards and the solutions from this essay. Every person who enters to the construction field must know all these stuffs. In Singapore, some construction companies conduct an examination regarding safety procedures. New workers are elected based on their knowledge on safety and their skills. So we need to inspire from them. Management should provide enough safety and PPEs to their employees. Employees also should not work in unsafe environment. Management should conduct frequent classes to employees. Accidents should be properly inspected and reasons should be revealed. Construction companies should form a technical team for safety. That team should take responsibility for the safety of the construction field. These things should be implemented in the sites not only in papers.